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Gov. Tim Walz moved Friday to limit gatherings in Minnesota to fewer than 250 people and declared a “peacetime emergency” to heighten the state’s readiness to respond to COVID-19. The event-size cap isn’t the kind of strict ban being ordered in some other states. Rather, it is being couched as recommended guidelines from the Minnesota Department of Health. It applies to things such as church services, youth sports events, business conferences and other gatherings. The moves come as 14 Minnesotans have now tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmsted, Ramsey,...

Live thread...Prez Trump Presser 3/13/20 Link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

China's Wuhan bio-tech lab has been trying for years to develop the world's most effective weapon in the form of a 100% deadly virus capable of wiping out all its enemies without firing a shot. This war machine should be immediately hit with our most powerful missiles and destroyed because of all the damage done to the world with its deadly viruses.

(at 2:30 mark in video) Potential Impact: - 18-22 months long - 1.6 Billion Infected (23% of world's population) - 21 million killed (1.6c% death rate) ...

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – Research and Statistics Look, we know China created it, and thus once it got released they got hit the hardest. Iran got hit hard because the Islamic rulers think their spit is all you need. Many reports from inside both China and Iran say the problem is 10 times worse. We have no clue about NK, but then dead men tell no tales. Italy is so bad because they refused to do anything to prevent the spread into their country, and still are lacking miserably. In America, Trump jumped on this quickly. Thus the vast...

No country can afford to rely on its greatest adversaries for survival.In case Americans were not already convinced Communist China constituted such a foe, since the Chinese coronavirus spread across the globe, the country threatened by way of its leading propaganda publication to impose pharmaceutical export controls that “plunge[] [America] into the mighty sea of coronavirus,” and now its senior propagandists are pinning the pandemic on the U.S. military. 2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US...

When I was a young man, I had a class where our teacher would start the class with a discussion on some great phrase or thought. He started one class with a discussion on an elderly man pulling weeds in his garden. Two young men came walking by and saw the elderly man pulling weeds. They thought to have some fun with him. “Sir! What would you be doing right now if you knew you were going to die tonight?” The elderly man didn’t even look up and continued pulling weeds. “I would finish weeding my garden.” Our teacher asked...

The above statistics are no doubt frightening numbers. But there are at least three major mitigating factors. First, the number of mild or asymptomatic cases is unknown and probably substantial. Second, China is still a poor country with low-quality health care and, at the epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province, was overwhelmed by the virus. (The case-fatality rate in Chinese provinces outside Hubei, where hospitals aren’t overloaded, is much lower.) Third, smoking is much more prevalent in China than America, especially among men (52 percent in China versus 16 percent in the U.S.), and smoking is a risk factor...

The debate over the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is remarkably devoid of hard data comparisons. With President Trump’s decision on Wednesday to expand travel restrictions to the European Union, it is time to evaluate the very different approaches to travel restrictions that the U.S. and the E.U. have taken. The end of January seems long ago. Until January 30th, the World Health Organization (WHO) explicitly declined to classify the coronavirus (COVID-19) as a global emergency. It urged countries not to restrict travel or trade.The WHO announcement on travel was partially in response to the U.S. government’s January...

There has never before come a time when I felt the need to ponder the fate of toilet paper. But here we are: the year is 2020 and the wealthy United States is running out of toilet paper. As it turns out, toilet paper was invented by the Chinese in the 1st Century. By the 6th Century, it was in widespread use. The toilet paper roll with easily detachable squares was patented in 1891. But in March of 2020, American retailers ran out of toilet paper because the Chinese coronavirus fear seized the sanity of our people. We have finally...

Question: There was a recent New York Times Magazine article about conman Paul Skalnik and how his false testimonies sent dozens to jail and 4 people to death row. In Florida, where death sentencing was/is popular, there have been 29 death-row inmates exonerated by the time of the article's publication. There was also a study that estimated 1 in 25, 4.1 percent, of inmates sentenced to death are innocent. Even if the state kills one innocent person, isn’t that too much? As Christians who talk about killing innocent babies, how can we then go and support capital punishment when there...

Will the COVID-19 outbreak burn out in the summer as happened with the SARS epidemic in 2003? That is what many hope, including U.S. President Donald Trump. Some scientists are also speculating that the coronavirus will not survive long in warmer environments. But whether this is true is still up in the air. The number of new confirmed cases has shown signs of slowing over the past several days, and more patients are being released from hospitals every day. But the point when the number of infected people declines is still not in sight. Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese respiratory...

Yesterday's thread is here: http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3823939/posts?page=1301

The state of New York is now permitting minors who self-identify as something other than their biological sex to alter their birth certificates. Officials in the Empire state announced this week that young people ages 16 and under who assert that they are transgender or nonbinary will be able to alter their sex marker on their birth certificate to reflect their "gender identity." Medical affidavits are not required to make the change. Proponents of the new policy hailed the move. “The actions announced today rid the state of a discriminatory and outdated policy and keeps New York rightly among the...

Pittsburgh City Councilors Daniel Lavelle and Ricky Burgess introduced legislation on Tuesday that asks the city to adopt 10 commitments to racial equity. The proposed resolution is part of the "All-In City" initiative, a racial-equity effort that Burgess and Lavelle embraced last year. The 10 commitments include: eliminating race-based disparities across all of city government departments and units; using training and coaching opportunities to eliminate systematic racism and white privilege; and transforming African-American communities from areas of concentrated poverty to mixed-income. The resolution also calls for a commission to monitor the city's progress toward racial equity. The 13-member body would...

Dozens have tested positive in Texas for COVID-19  AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a statewide emergency Friday over the new coronavirus pandemic.He also announced that San Antonio will be the first city in the state to have a “drive-thru” testing facility for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.He said the new testing location could open as early as Friday. It isn’t immediately clear how many people could be tested.As of the Friday afternoon press conference, Abbott said at least 39 people in the state have tested positive (not including the 11 confirmed cases among American evacuees at...

President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency in response to the coronavirus outbreak to speed relief to affected Americans, administration officials said Friday. Senior officials confirmed to ABC News and NBC News that Trump will make the announcement during a 3 p.m. EDT news conference.

(WOAY) – Gov. Jim Justice has announced that he is closing all schools due to the threat of coronavirus. This is in effect until further notice. Gov. Justice says, “We’ve got a monster that is looming, but the monster is not here. Every single one of us believes the monster is coming to some degree.” Justice says he concluded because he has experience in the school system, usually as a coach.

As the coronavirus threat grows, we are all hoping to limit its spread, or even better, invent a vaccine. Yet, at the very same time we need new treatments some people are proposing to abandon decades of proven success in innovation policy. Fortunately, there is widespread support and mounting evidence in favor of keeping the pro-innovation approach that has always defined the American spirit. The American bio-pharmaceutical industry leads the world in innovation. Americans have access to newer treatments, sooner. And that's not all. A recent report highlighted that sector of our economy supports more than 4 million American. A...

Failed Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum (D) was allegedly involved in a suspected crystal meth incident on Friday morning at a Miami Beach hotel, according to a local police report. The Miami Beach Police Department report states officers found Gillum inside a West Avenue hotel room with two other men shortly before 1:00 a.m., where first responders were providing medical attention to one of the individuals for a possible drug overdose. “Mr. Gillum was unable to communicate with officers due to his inebriated state,” according to the report.